Fairy Trail Walk for Esther

Chapter One · The Real Beginning

A teacher,
a trail,
and a love of books.

Esther Wehrli was a storyteller and kindergarten teacher in Switzerland — the kind of teacher who knew every storybook in the room by heart, and who believed that promoting reading was the most worthwhile thing an adult could do for a child. When she came to Newmarket to visit her brother Christian, two things made her happiest: walking the Tom Taylor Trail in the morning, and spending afternoons among the shelves of the public library.

When Esther passed away in 2021, Christian wanted to bring those two loves together — the woods and the words. The first two annual Fairy Trail Walks for Esther were that wish made real: a path you could walk with your children, one page at a time.

In 2026, the wish has grown. Newmarket Public Library has taken what began as a memorial and turned it into a tradition — four StoryWalks® across the town, unfolding one by one through summer and fall, all dedicated to Esther's memory.

— with love, Christian

Chapter Four · What it Adds Up To

Two years in, and the numbers tell a story.

What began as one brother's tribute has quietly grown into one of Newmarket's most loved family events. In 2025, the Library tracked more than eleven hundred children walking the trails — and more than twenty thousand people encountering the project through Library channels.

Anything and Everywhere. — Newmarket Library · 2026

In 2026, that one walk becomes four. Same posts. Same pages. Same dedication to Esther. Multiplied by four parks and one full summer.